The present invention relates to a main distributing frame (MDF) apparatus, in particular, to an automatic wiring apparatus for causing a robot to perform a jumpering operation of an MDF apparatus that connects an exchange and a subscriber line.
In recent years, various services for telephone communications have been performed as communication networks have grown. The number of subscribers who have such services is increasing year after year. In an exchange, for example, when a telephone subscriber or a user terminal is changed, the connection between the exchange and the user terminal should be removed and changed. Such operations are performed by an MDF apparatus. By inserting or removing a connection pin into/from a particular pin hole of an array on a matrix board, the exchange and the subscriber terminal are connected or disconnected. The inserting operation and removing operation of the connection pins into/from the pin holes on the matrix board of the MDF apparatus are performed by an automatic pin inserting/removing robot from a view point of efficiency.
The matrix board on the MDF apparatus is used for wiring between the subscriber and the exchange between dedicated line networks, between trunk lines, between an exchange and a transmission unit, and so forth. The matrix board is a multiple-layered plate of which a plurality of X axis paired-line patterns and a plurality of Y axis paired-line patterns are alternately formed. Pin holes are formed at all lattice points of which the X axis patterns intersect with the Y axis patterns.
To connect the X axis patterns and the Y axis patterns on the matrix board, a connection pin is inserted into a pin hole formed where an X axis pattern intersect with a Y axis pattern. When many matrix boards and connection pins are used, a large scaled MDF apparatus can be formed.
The automatic pin inserting/removing robot, which inserts or removes a connection pin into/from a pin hole on the matrix board, is composed of a robot hand portion (that holds a connection pin) and a drive mechanism. The automatic pin inserting/removing robot is designed to move in the X axis direction and the Y axis direction on a plane region opposite to many matrix boards. The automatic pin inserting/removing robot inserts or removes a connection pin into/from a pin hole by moving the robot hand portion to a position opposite to the pin hole and inserting the connection pin into the pin hole or removing the connection pin from the pin hole.
However, actually, since many matrix boards are used and/or a large robot hand portion is used for improved reliability of the automatic pin inserting/removing robot, the MDF apparatus itself becomes large.
To solve such a problem, an MDF apparatus in which an automatic pin inserting robot and a plurality of matrix boards are integrated as one unit and a plurality of units are used has been proposed. In this apparatus, each unit has a robot hand portion that moves in the X axis direction and the Y axis direction in a frame corresponding to the plane region opposite to a plurality of matrix boards. In this apparatus, a zero point aligning portion of the robot hand portion is assigned. The apparatus moves the robot hand portion to a desired connection pin or a position opposite to a pin hole corresponding to the zero point position and inserts the connection pin into the pin hole or removes the connection pin from the pin hole.